“L’opera poligonale nel Lazio: cronologia e contesti di impiego”, in M. CARDOSA (a cura di), Le antiche mura «etrusche» di Orbetello, Atti Orbetello 2017, Arcidosso 2019, pp. 153-171 (original) (raw)

L’edificio a oikos e la sua decorazione, in BARTOLONI et al., Veio, Piazza d’Armi: riconsiderazioni e novità, in Tetti di terracotta. La decorazione architettonica fittile tra Etruria e Lazio in età arcaica, Atti delle Giornate di Studio, Roma 2011, pp.116-122

discuss the evidence from the area of the oikos tempie excavated by Enrico Stefani and, since 1996, re-explored by the Sapienza University of Rome together with the area facing the tempie. In the second part Silvia Ten Kortenaar and lefke Van Kampen present new observations about the "casa-torre" ("tower-house") and their interpretation according the new reference-grid offered by Symbols ofWealth and Power. The last part is entirely dedicated to the most recent discoveries analyzed by Gilda Bartoloni, Director of the excavation in Piazza d'Armi since 1996. According to the new reconstruction hypothesis of the oikos at Veii, Piazza d'Armi, proposed by Nancy Winter, the two series of revetment plaques, traditionally ascribed to different phases, could have been part of the same roof at the same time. As sound as this theory seems, it does not explain the very different style of the figured friezes. The recent excavations under the direction of G. Bartoloni have clearly demonstrated the chronological sequence of the building. A first 7th-century B.C. megaron structure -that can probably be recognized under the Archaic tempie from the Stefani's drawings -and a third and last phase have been identified by some walls excavated in 1970. We cannot exclude the possibility that the two kinds of plaques could have decorated two different phases of the tempie, as was recognized in the nearby tower-house. The large amount of fragments of architectural revetment, some consistent with the Stefani's finding, others different, indicates that the oikos was part of a complex of buildings dedicated to aristocratic and religious rituals and ceremonies. The accurate reexamination of the excavation journals, sometimes conflicting with what was written in the 1944 publication, points out many doubts about the methodology used in 1922 by Stefani and his interpretation, leaving the possibility of botri hypotheses. The archaeological deposit was deeply altered by subsequent activities in the area up to the Middle Ages. The positions and the scatter of the plaques suggest that the building underwent many divestments and disturbances, whose succession is reconstructed in the matrix presented here. In the second part of this contribution we discuss the architectural terracottas found in the fili of a water cistern in the so-called Area V of Veii, Piazza d'Armi, attributed to a "casa-torre" ("towerhouse"). With the exception of the new pieces of architectural decoration presented at Deliciae Fictiles IV which was held after the publication of the new book, almost ali fragments have been considered by Nancy Winter, even if possibly in an advanced phase of her work. The new pieces have been attributed by us within the new reference grid, dealing with at least three decorative systems: Decorated Roofs of the Late Orientalizing Period, decorated in the white-" Sapienza -Università di Roma.

M. Asciutti, Un tratto di opus quadratum altomedievale nelle mura del lato sud del Castro Pretorio, in L. Barelli, Architettura e tecnica costruttiva a Roma nell’altomedioevo. Saggi, Roma, Altair4 Multimedia, 2018, pp. 69-75

Architettura e tecnica costruttiva a Roma nell’altomedioevo. Saggi, 2018

Lo studio di un tratto altomedievale delle mura del lato sud del Castro Pretorio, non accessibile normalmente al pubblico, formato da un basamento in opus quadratum sormontato da una cortina laterizia, tipicamente caratterizzati da un forte andamento sinusoidale dei ricorsi, che spesso confluiscono l’uno nell’altro, e dall'utilizzo di materiale di riuso. Lo studio si inserisce nelle ricerche sulle murature altomedievali in grandi blocchi di tufo e laterizi di recupero, che hanno caratterizzato in maniera importante l'attività costruttiva in ambito romano, in un periodo ricco di imprese costruttive, ma avaro di resti architettonici.

"«Nella miglior forma e nella migliore luce». Progetti per un nuovo Museo Ostiense dall’E42 a oggi" in S. Benedetti et alii (a cura di), Forme dell'Abitare a Roma, echi dell'antico nell'architettura del primo Novecento (Atti del Convegno, Roma, 23-25 novembre 2021), Roma, 2023, pp. 83-96. [preview]

The quest for suitable exhibition spaces to accommodate the artworks discovered in Ostia Antica has been a constant concern in the modern history of the archaeological area, since the establishment of the first antiquarium in 1912. The situation worsened with the excavations for the Universal Exhibition of 1942 and the discovery of about 200 new sculptures, which needed an adequate accommodation. The Director of the Excavations Guido Calza and the architect Italo Gismondi proposed the renovation of the Casone del Sale, seat of the newly inaugurated Museum (1934), but the project wasn’t appreciated by Marcello Piacentini, who imposed the construction of a new complex designed by the engineer Enrico Lenti. The new building would fit harmoniously the old museum, the Cardine Massimo and the bank of the Tiber, with an succession of open and closed spaces recalling the Roman domus. Here we will show the graphic documentation of both projects, filed in the Archivio Disegni of the Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica and partially published: in addition, we will also show the administrative and project documentation found in the Fondo Ente Eur, filed in the Archivio Centrale dello Stato. Due to the war, the project was abandoned in favor of a modest enlargement of the existing museum, inaugurated in 1945. In the 1960s, Italo Gismondi proposed the realization of a new building, in which the opus sectile of Porta Marina would be exhibited: this project, too, was never realized, but its graphic documentation is presented here. The search for exhibition spaces continued in the 1980s, when the architect Vanni Mannucci proposed the reconversion of the building of the ex-Meccanica Romana into a museum; a project supported by the superintendent Anna Gallina Zevi, not be realized due to the failure of the expropriation.